There was a time when the host of the satirical cable show “Talk Soup” would have made snarky remarks about a faith-themed movie like “Heaven Is for Real.”

That irony is not lost on Greg Kinnear, who not only served as host of the TV show two decades ago, but now stars in the movie “Heaven Is for Real.”

Kinnear, 50, has come a long way since he poked fun at celebrities (before he became one), and the Oscar-nominated actor (“As Good as It Gets”) and star of the Fox show “Rake” said he can explain why he was ready to accept the role of a real-life Midwestern pastor whose 4-year-old son claims that he visited heaven during surgery.

The actor also will describe his feelings about the tenuous future of his TV show, which has suffered through three time slots in its first year and now is the subject of rumors concerning its possible demise.

In the TV show, he plays a lawyer who practices law while frequenting prostitutes, barely controlling a gambling addiction and pretty much spinning his own moral compass. In other words, the exact opposite of the character he plays in the new religious film.

Q. Is this film penance for “Rake”?

A. (Laughs) That’s a great question. I’m trying to cover all kinds of behavior in 2014. Those characters are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, aren’t they?

Q.I don’t want to pick at a scab, but your TV show was moved to Saturday night this week, and there are rumors that it might not return next season. How are you handling those rumors?

A. I don’t know. I had dinner with Sam Raimi the other night. He directed a couple of the shows and was with us from the starting point. We both responded to the material. I loved the Australian show (upon which the American TV show is based), and I think we made 13 really good episodes of a show I’m really proud of. I can’t speak to TV ratings, or the Fox network. A show about a prostitute-loving, gambling-addicted defense attorney is a questionable scenario to begin with, but they were good to us.

Q.Do you believe “Rake” is over?

A. I don’t know how that works. I know they weren’t happy with our ratings on Thursday, so they moved us to Friday, and now to Saturday. Frankly, I have never watched a TV show live in my entire life. If other people are like me and use their DVR, they’ll find our show even if it’s on Sunday mornings.

Q.Is it like a punch in the gut when a network is threatening to shut your show down?

A. Gosh, no. I really enjoyed making the shows we did. I have no control over what happens to it. I learned that from years of making movies. You have no control over a movie’s box office. Some of my favorite movies made nothing.

Q.It sounds like you’re at peace with whatever happens.

A. I would tell you if it felt like a punch in the gut, but it doesn’t.

Q. What kind of an actor identifies with a character like Rake and a pastor?

A. An actor who likes to mix it up, I guess.

Q.Are you a religious person?

A. I wouldn’t call myself a deeply religious person. I really liked that the film didn’t get too distracted with the question of whether heaven is real. That is a theme in the movie, but it really gives the audience a front and center seat in watching how this family deals with these events. The fact that he’s a pastor, but not a holy man of the cloth as we’re so used to seeing in movies, and a volunteer firefighter and a wrestler and a father and a teacher, fascinated me. When his son tells him he went to heaven, Todd goes into this internal struggle about what it means. It sets up a lot more conflict than I would have imagined, given the title.

Q. Did you meet with the real Todd Burpo?

A. We started Skyping in 2013 because he was traveling and I was working. That was my introduction to him. He was very forthcoming. I got the impression that he has very strong convictions about his faith, and on what happened. At the same time, he has a ferocious love for his family and children, and to go through what he did was extraordinary.

Q. Did he have any concerns about the way he was going to be portrayed, or the way his son’s story was going to be told?

A. Not really. No, wait. He was adamant that when we portrayed the wrestling and firefighter scenes, we were 100 percent accurate, because if we messed that up, he said, we would have no idea how much trouble he’d get in back home. He said that if we screwed up those scenes, those guys would rib him to death. Interestingly, he had no qualms about the bigger issues in the movie. He just didn’t want us to make the fire department scenes look like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon (laughs).

Q.Do see any irony in the “Talk Soup” guy being part of this recent wave of religious-themed movies coming out of Hollywood?

A. (Laughs) Are you asking if Greg Kinnear of “Talk Soup” might have had an arched eyebrow toward a movie called “Heaven Is for Real”?

Q. That’s exactly what I’m asking.

A. I can’t imagine such a thing. But I really can imagine it. Don’t think that when I looked at the cover page of the script called “Heaven Is for Real,” I didn’t have a little bit of a “What is this?” moment. And I would have pushed away from the table if I felt it was a preachy, two-hour church sermon. I honestly felt like Randy (director Randall Wallace) had found a really interesting way to tell this story that, regardless of where you stand on the religious spectrum, simply tells a credible story about a man and his family. Listen, even Todd is skeptical at first in the movie. I was surprised by how honest it felt, and how captivated I was by the story.

Q.Do you think you would have found it so captivating 10 years ago?

A. I think I would have recognized a good script back then. I think I’ve always looked for good storytelling.

Q. I only ask this because I’m older than you, but do you look at scripts differently through 50-year-old eyes?

A. Sure. I’m looking through the eyes I currently have. You got me. I hope to look at scripts through 60-year-old eyes a decade from now. (laughs)

Q. But seriously?

A. It’s not just my age, but family and children change the way you look at work.

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